The family had US citizenship because Felix's father, Arthur Basch, was a wine trader who lived in San Francisco.
After moving back to Germany, Arthur Basch kept his American citizenship, and passed it to his children and, thence, to his grandchildren.
When the Basch family arrived in New York in 1933, they opened a restaurant on Central Park South in the Navarro Hotel.
He was mobilized in the US Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, where he worked as a script boy.
He was known for his images of celebrities, artists, dancers, actors, starlets, and glamour-girls in America and Europe.